BASKETBALL
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Hawks forward Tim Coenraad will play through the pain of a chronic foot injury for the rest of the season, declaring his side is still a chance of reaching the finals.
Coenraad has battled the pain in his left foot for the bulk of the season and pulled up sore following the Hawks' upset victory over the Kings on Friday.
He spent Wednesday's training session with his foot in a bucket of ice and, though it will limit his training load, Coenraad said it wouldn't keep him out of action.
"I've been battling a bit of plantar fasciitis in my left foot since the start of the season," he said.
"I've been able to stay on top of it for the most part of the season, but after the game on Saturday it pulled up worse than usual and I've had to sit out a bit. I've missed one practice and I think my practice time is going to be limited now to give it a break, but I'll still be playing. I'm still ready to go.
"I did the same thing on the other foot two seasons ago, but I actually tore that one and had to sit out half the season. Hopefully, this one I can just manage it and judge it by how it feels and try and stay on top of it. In games it won't affect me too much."
Coenraad's consistent form has been a silver lining in a disappointing season, but he said his focus remained on the team, which is not yet completely out of finals contention.
"When your team's 3-12, it's hard to give yourself many accolades because at the end of the day, it's all about the team and how the team performs," he said.
"We really need to start winning some games. I know the play-offs are a long stretch, but if we win every game, it's still a possibility, but we just want to climb off the bottom of the ladder. That's the first and foremost thing for us at the moment - to start making a run towards the end of the season."
The win over the Kings was the first of four consecutive home games and Coenraad said his side must maintain momentum against Melbourne on Friday.
"We've got a bit of a stretch of home games and single home games, no double-headers, to start to get some rhythm going," he said.
"Hopefully we can take care of business at home for the next four weeks and then coming into more away games, we've got a bit of a flow going and then anything can happen.
"In the past two seasons we've made the play-offs with a losing record.
"If we can get 10 out of this next 13, that's the same record as last year and with the league always being so tight, you never know where you're going to fall."